Welcome Home
by Okoriwadsworth
Summary: Oliver Queen has a secret. He has a daughter. What will it change for Laurel Lance?


If You Want To Get Out Alive, Run For Your Life.

(Author's Note: Oliver and Shado had a child together in this AU. Sara went to the League and Shado returned to China with their daughter Emiko Queen. That is the main difference. Also, both the particle accelerator and the Flash exists in Season One, which is the time of this AU. I'm mentioning this because he will be important to the story. Enjoy the feature presentation.)

_**10 Years Ago….**_

Oliver Queen never wanted to be a superhero. This really became true when he saw his friend, Barry Allen, suddenly become someone capable of running 400 miles with the same ease that you and I might run around the corner to get milk. But as he saw Barry work, he realized it wasn't the actual speed. He imagined being able to have a mind that could process information as fast as Barry's now could would be endlessly valuable. Rather, it was because he could easily see how easy it would be to rely on that speed.

If you're THAT fast, why would you need to prepare yourself for every eventuality, or keep yourself in tip-top shape? Voicing that worry, even to himself, meant he had to make sure Barry wasn't falling into that trap. He couldn't live with himself if he had the ability to help someone avoid the same mistakes, the same tunnel vision that led him to this point in his life, and refused to do it. Knowing that, his mind quickly brought him to the other person in his life who was affected by that damnable particle accelerator explosion.

Laurel Lance, his closest friend and someone who was in his life in ways he was struggling to properly wrap his head around, was also in the explosion. She was in Central City for a law conference on federal kidnapping statutes, of all things. Normally, she wouldn't have entertained the notion of going. But, Oliver supposed, when you're the bottom person on the totem pole in a new job, you go where they tell you to go.

And then, because this always happened, a weird science experiment went off when it wasn't supposed to and she was caught in the crossfire. Now, she was in a coma. He had spared no expense to have her flown back home to Starling City in a top-of-the-line medevac, and brought in every specialist he could think of to ensure her care was first-class.

That wasn't enough for him. Just knowing she was hurt filled him with a pain he couldn't verbalize. So, he visited every day. Even if it was just to play her Temptations songs, and talk about his day. Right now, that would be enough for him.

While he was standing guard by Laurel's bedside, and using every trick in the playbook to get world-class medical care for her, the universe decided to throw him a curveball. Namely, in the form of a certified letter and a process server.

One day, while he was packing up to head off to the hospital, the doorbell at the Queen Mansion rang. Finishing his cup of fair-trade coffee, and grabbing a fresh-baked croissant from Raisa, he walked to the front door and saw a man standing there holding a manila envelope with a look of cool professionalism on his face.

"Excuse me, sir. Are you Oliver Queen?"

"Yes, I am. What is this regarding?" said Oliver, confusion on his face.

"You're needed to go to the Chinese embassy in town. All of it is explained in this letter. Thank you."

And with that, the process server leaves the envelope with Oliver before heading to his work van and leaving the Queen mansion just as quick as he can.

_**A few hours later at the Chinese embassy**_…..

Oliver Queen was stunned. Utterly stunned.

He figured Shado hadn't survived. Same way he knew Sara and Slade were dead. No one could have survived that boat crash. So, out of the clear blue, to hear that Shado had survived the crash was a feeling he couldn't put into words.

And if that was all there was from that letter, that'd be plenty. That'd be the thing that gave him the hope to keep going. Just knowing that there was someone out there who remembered him as he wanted to be, instead of this monster that he is now, was far better than he thought he deserved.

But, and this he thought of as a blessing, Shado had managed to have a daughter. And she wanted him to be the sole caregiver. To imagine that, to suddenly think of himself as the sort of person who was going to be responsible for a child, got him to rethink everything he was planning. Could he really be the Hood, this dark bringer of justice and vengeance, if he was also Oliver Queen, single father?

And then, almost all at once, a wave of emotion hit him. He'd have to explain all of this to Laurel. He'd have to deal with the idea that she could be heartbroken all over again at thinking he had cheated on her.

That thought led to another one. He was still in love with her. He had never stopped.

If she ever woke up, he'd tell her. He'd damn himself to her anger for the rest of his life if it meant, somehow by some miracle, she was still alive to be angry at him. He had spent all that time on the island making deals, trading justice for his own happiness, that one more deal didn't seem that bad.

But before any of that, before trading his happiness for ensuring that his daughter had everything she needed to have a fuller life than his had been, he had to meet her first.

So here he stood, in the Chinese embassy, waiting to see his daughter.

"I am waiting to see my daughter" he repeated again and again, as if saying it out loud to himself could somehow make the thought of it less utterly intimidating. His mind, usually the perfect exemplar of cold logic, was racing faster than it ever had.

And then, the door opened and a small dark-haired half-Chinese and half-white girl opened the door. Instantly, Oliver's breath caught in his chest and he knew he was absolutely done for. This was his daughter, and he would die to keep her safe.

Getting down on both knees, he wondered what her name was idly. That information hadn't been left for him, which he found strange. All he knew was that he was to go into this room, and someone was going to bring his daughter out.

Nonetheless, he needed to be brave. In this moment, being brave meant telling her who he was.

"Hello there. My name is Oliver Queen, and I'm a friend of your mother" he said warmly, trying to keep his fear at bay.

And then, the bigger problem dawned on him. He didn't know if she spoke English. Oh god. How could he have been so short-sighted, so selfish?

But he was saved, as his daughter nodded her head and told him, simply, "My name is Emiko. Are you my father?"

Nodding his head, having no trust in his voice, he reached out his hand and Oliver and Emiko Queen walked out of the chinese embassy together.

_**A few hours later back at the Queen Mansion…..**_

Raisa had been a life-saver to him on so many occasions, in so many different ways, that he supposed he could never pay her back. But this? This was a favor above and beyond anything he asked of her.

He had spent the afternoon cold-calling every child care provider he could think of, while Emiko played with his mother, trying to find someone who spoke Chinese well enough to ensure that his daughter wasn't completely deprived of all aspects of her culture. He knew she'd be Americanized a touch. He couldn't help that.

But he would be DAMNED if his daughter ended up being unable to speak Chinese.

So, when Raisa showed up and handed him a phone number from a friend of a friend who apparently not only was a certified child care provider but also happened to speak perfect Chinese, he hugged her until tears came out of both of their eyes.

"You are a good man, Mr. Oliver. No matter who you become, you will always be a good man" said Raisa, looking at him until it suddenly dawned on him that Raisa knew about him being the Arrow the entire time.

Calling the number, Oliver smiles as Raisa goes back to baking cookies.

"Hello? This is Oliver Queen. Am I speaking to Cassandra Cain?"

_**The next morning…..**_

Oliver Queen was feeling accomplished as he rolled out of bed. His daughter was with him, he had found her high-quality daycare with someone who showed both a great facility with Chinese and with kids, and it was a sunny day.

At EXACTLY that moment, then, his phone rang.

It was the hospital. Laurel had woken up.

This was about to be the worst day of his life. And considering that, just this Christmas, one of those days included getting nearly killed by the Dark Archer, that was saying something.

But nonetheless, he knew it had to be done. It couldn't be how it was before the explosion. He had to tell her the truth about how he felt, and if that meant he ruined his friendships with Laurel and Tommy in one perfect cut, then that would be that.

_**Meanwhile in Starling City Hospital 10 years ago…..**_

(Laurel's POV)

She remembered everything. Seeing Oliver alive when she was on a snack break from the conference. The rage that followed right after when she realized what him alive actually meant. And then, that moment when a blue wave rolled over her and she flew head-first into the wall of the conference was knocked stone-cold out.

So when she woke up, not in Central City where she had been, but in Starling City she remembered that she had wanted to confront him, to yell at him. But, as weird as this might have sounded to anyone else, one of the speakers at the conference changed her mind. She reminded everyone that kidnapping victims suffer far worse than we imagine, and that the person they were before the event is almost never the person they were after.

That thought chilled her. Being stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere for five years, with all of your loved ones either dead or forgetting you existed, seemed like enough pain to serve as Oliver's penance for everything that had been done before he got on that boat. And, she supposed, he had panicked. Made a poor decision in the face of that panic, and here we found ourselves.

If she could have, if she had been able to, she would have slapped Oliver for the betrayal five years ago and then she would have hugged him and told him she was sorry he suffered like that.

And then, he appeared. Looking tall and just right in a black three-piece suit straight out of the finest Savile Row tailors with a bouquet of red roses.

This ought to be interesting.

(Oliver's POV)

He knew he needed to dress up for this. It would be the height of disrespect to go see the love of your life, and tell her you never stopped loving her, in some grubby sweatpants and a t-shirt whose cleanliness was an open question.

So, for one of the first times since his return, Oliver Queen traded on his wealth. He got a tailor to come to the house and style him a perfect suit, and then a florist to pick out the exact perfect flowers.

If he was going to do this, it was going to be the best thing he had ever done.

So, when he got there, he went straight to her room and stood in the doorway. He smiled, although the pain and fear behind it was noticeable to anyone that serious about looking, and he told her the truth.

"Laurel, I was not a good man before I went on that island. I cheated on you with Sara, and it is the single greatest regret of my life. And while I was on that island, I did more things that I am not proud of, things I wish I could take back if I could. But knowing that I had to get home, had to make things right with you, kept me going. I'll understand if you don't, or can't, forgive me. But I had to tell you. I had to tell you the truth" blurts out Oliver, not trusting his fragile emotional control to hold a second longer.

Walking away, sure as he's been of anything that he's just going to cry if he keeps this up, he stops and turns around when he hears the three words he's longed to hear the most from the one person he thought he'd never hear them from again.

(Laurel's POV)

"I love you, Oliver" she says. At first, she blurted it out just to make him feel less broken, less utterly and thoroughly alone. But as the words echoed in her ears, she knew it was true. She loved him. And in that moment, no matter what other sins he had committed, she knew they'd be ok.

"But what are you not telling me, Ollie? I can get through anything. It might take me a while to do it, but I can do it if you just tell me. Lying to me is not something you're allowed to do anymore. Are we clear?" she asks, with a depth and strength in her voice she didn't know she had.

"I have a daughter" blurts out Oliver, looking smaller and weaker than ever. "While I was on the island, I was so alone and so broken that one of the other people who washed up on the island cuddled me while I tried to sleep. One thing led to another, and we ended up having sex. I thought she was dead, later, and a few days ago I found out we had a daughter."

"A daughter?" she mutters, shocked. Honestly, she should have expected this. Being stranded alone, and as lonely and sad as he must have been, something like that wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"Yes. Her name is Emiko, and her mom sent her to me to keep her safe. Apparently, she had gotten into some real trouble in Shanghai. It wasn't clear in the note but giving her to me, here in America, was the best thing she could do" explains Oliver, feeling a tightness and dread in his chest at the notion that Laurel would, somehow, look to separate him from his daughter.

"Ollie? I'm not happy with you, right now. I'm really not. But I understand why it happened. And eventually, with enough time, I'll be happy with you again. But I do have a question" she said, levering herself up to a sitting position.

(Oliver's POV)

Anything. She could have asked him anything in that moment, and he would have tried to make it happen.

"Can I meet her?"

_**Present Day…..**_

Oliver Jonas Queen and Emiko Shado Queen waited patiently. This had been planned for MONTHS, this thing, and if it was going to be done, it had to be done right. Felicity and Diggle had provided the plans, and expert tactical assistance. Sara and Nyssa had provided cover and diversionary tactics.

And then, the op began. Dinah Laurel Lance-Queen walked into the front room of the Queen Mansion and looked around, and was suddenly set upon by her step-daughter and her boyfriend who walked her into the big front room where Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Sara Lance, and Nyssa Raatko-Lance were all waiting.

Before the Black Canary could even catch her breath, Oliver was on a knee with his mother's ring and a question on his lips.

"Dinah Laurel Lance, I have loved you since I knew the meaning of the word. I want nothing more than to grow old with you. Would you do me the honor of being my wife? Please?"

She sobbed "Yes" and hugged her fiancé. In that moment, that exact moment, they both felt like they were at home.


End file.
